Monday, May 19, 2008

Ugliest poker sunglasses

For some time now I've been collecting examples of the biggest, ugliest, most effeminate sunglasses worn by men at poker tables. Some are professionals, from televised poker shows. Some are amateurs I've been in a game with. There have been lots of the latter, but I've often had a hard time getting pictures of them. Basically, my only three choices are: (1) Tell them I want to snap a photo to enter in my "ugliest sunglasses" contest. That might not be wise, for obvious reasons. (2) Tell them I want to snap a photo because their glasses are so good-looking. But I'm just not a good enough actor to pull off a whopper like that with a straight face. (3) Sneak a picture when I think they're not paying attention. This is made trickier by the fact that my cell phone camera, when in use, flashes a red light, and has a message on its external screen (both visible to anybody facing the lens) that says "CAMERA IN OPERATION." I guess the manufacturers don't like the thought of surreptitious photo-taking.

Let's start with the amateurs. First up is this guy, who is actually the latest addition to the collection, having been spotted at Mandalay Bay Saturday night:



Both of the next two were taken last year sometime. I'm pretty sure the first one was at the Hilton, but I can neither recall nor tell from the background where the second one was (though Planet Hollywood would be my best guess):




Then we've got the pros. Here's "Hollywood" Dave Stann, from FSN's "Best Damn Poker Show":



Here's John Juanda, from a "Poker After Dark" tournament:



Here's Daniel Alaei, from "High Stakes Poker":



Here's Shawn Sheikhan, also from "High Stakes Poker":



Here's Dan Harmetz, the third entry from "High Stakes Poker," which seems to be a mecca of ugliness:




Finally we have Dario Minieri, in a photo taken at, I believe, last year's WSOP main event:



So there you have my nominees for "Biggest, Ugliest, Most Effeminate Sunglasses Worn by a Male at a Poker Table." I leave it to readers to pass final judgment in the comments section.

Incidentally, a Dishonorable Mention should go to Dolce and Gabbana. From my informal observations, they make a disproportionate share of glasses of this general style. They're horrible. Nevada should pass a law allowing one to rip these monstrosities off of another person's face and stomp them to bits, without criminal or civil liability. The world would be a better place for it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you're going to wear the big ugly "fashion" sunglasses you should be required to at least have some sense of fashion.

My vote goes to the first guy from Mandalay Bay. You can't wear a pair of sunglasses like that in a wrinkled and ratty t-shirt and looking as if you've never been to a barber or seen a razor.

I also especially like the t-shirt and backwards cap with the designer sunglasses.

The last time I was in Vegas I was playing at MGM Grand and there were a couple of these youngsters with the backwards cap and sunglasses. One of the senior citizen local rocks got in a hand with them and grabbed his cap and sunglasses from the table behind him and threw it on backwards with his sunglasses. They weren't amused.....but I sure was and so was the rest of the table.